What is the welfare state America wants, and what is the one it can afford? This is not a question Americans are ready to discuss — so much so that their elected officials have shut down the government to avoid it.

Democrats want to make the expanded Obamacare subsidies, expiring at the end of this year permanent, and Republicans don’t. In a sense, the parties have switched sides. Last spring, it was Republicans who wanted to extend a program that was sent to expire at the end of the year — the tax cuts passed into law in 2017.

Democrats view entitlements and Republicans view tax cuts in much the same way: Once in place, they become so popular they can’t be taken away.

A covered middle class

Since the 1960s, the welfare state has grown to cover not just the poor but, increasingly, the

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